Two heavyweights in the Mead world have partnered to bring a new era of mead competitions to the International Mead Community. The MAZER CUP, started by Ken Schramm, Dan McConnell and Mike O'Brien quickly became the de-facto standard for mead competitions in North America and set the standard for all of the mead-only competitions that followed.

With support from Ken Schramm, Dan McConnell and Mike O'Brien, Gotmead.com has picked up the baton and is bringing the Mazer Cup, possibly the most well-known mead competition, back from its hiatus. In keeping with the original Mazer Cup, our competition will give mazers to the winners of our home competition. We are also holding a worldwide commercial mead competition, and will be awarding new and distintive medals that we hope will soon become a coveted achievement in the commercial meadmaking market.

The team managing and supporting this event came out of the same team that brought you the hugely successful 2006, 2007 and 2008 HMMC (Home Meadmakers Competition). We are dedicated to bringing you the best competition we can!
Competition Details
The competitions will be held in Boulder, Colorado, at the Outlook Hotel, April 17-19.

We are now putting our judging team and support staff together, and will be contacting those who have helped with the old Meadfest competitions.

We will be holding both home and commercial competitions, and will start accepting entries about a month out from the event.

Join us in welcoming back the Mazer Cup!!! Keep an eye out here, and at http://www.mazercup.com, where we will be updating soon with more details on the competitions.

Wonderful! For those of with fond memories of the Mazer cup competition, this is really good news.

01-24-2009, 09:08 PM

sandman

Very cool! I've got my submission for this one ready and waiting. It's currently sitting in two unlabelled 750ml bottles so if I need to re-bottle it into 3-375ml bottles I'll have time to do it and still get them mailed off in time. I'll be waiting excitedly for more details on this competition.
:hello2:

01-24-2009, 11:14 PM

epetkus

Awesome!

I won't have anything ready by April of this year, but next year, who know?!

Eric

01-25-2009, 12:33 PM

Vino

That's GREAT!

Something to aspire for in 2010.

01-25-2009, 09:22 PM

Summersolstice

Great! I can't wait!! I've been keeping my fingers crossed for several months and I have high hopes for this event. Judging from the quality of the organizing staff, I know I won't be disappointed.

02-04-2009, 01:38 PM

Vino

I visited the Mazer Cup International site and it looks good...I am curious about entries however...does anyone know what size bottles and quatities will be accepted for entry yet?

02-04-2009, 03:00 PM

Oskaar

The bottles should be standard 12 oz beer bottles that are free of labels, or raised/embossed/etched decoration or writing. They should be capped with plain bottlecaps that have no insignia, or blacked out with a black permanent marker.

Three bottles are requested. This guarantees that if you win a gold in the preliminary rounds there will be enough mead left after the judging to send your entry to the Best of Show round. You may send just two bottles, but if you win a gold we cannot guarantee that there will be enough mead to send up the to the BoS round after the first round and any mini-BoS rounds that become necessary. It would be a SHAME to win a gold and not be able to represent in the BoS round.

I'm updating the Mazer Cup Site so the latest and greatest information will be out there by this weekend.

I generally keg for long term storage and when I do bottle I transfer from keg to flip top-style bottles. No leeway in the capped bottle requirement? I'd hate to have to buy bottles, caps, and a capper just to enter the odd competition. -- Olen

02-04-2009, 05:54 PM

wayneb

Sorry, Olen. The crown capped plain beer bottles are pretty much standard in most large competitions. That ensures a modicum of anonymity when the bottles are presented to the judging team for inspection prior to the first pour. If you were to use flip-tops, or raised relief molded glass bottles, or strange sized bottles, or decorated crown caps, etc., it would be easy for a judge who just happens to know how you bottle, to identify your entries out of the flight.

The crown capped plain beer bottles ... [ensure] a modicum of anonymity when the bottles are presented to the judging team for inspection prior to the first pour.

Sure, makes absolute sense. Out of idle curiosity, how are things like full-sparkling meads handled or are those not commonly entered in competition? Not sure I want to try to generate more than 3 or 4 atmospheres of pressure in a standard beer bottle: it might be a shattering experience. ;D -- Olen

02-05-2009, 02:39 AM

Kee

NO PUNS!!! The thread will deteriorate into chaos!

02-05-2009, 02:55 AM

Oskaar

OK, I think we all might be feeling the pressure so I'll head off any pun disagreements and put a cap on this discussion and say that I want Got Mead to be the premier mead site with a friendly atmosphere so our members will be primed to discuss any condition they encounter in their meadmaking adventures. Absent feeling riddled with questions about recipes and process, members will hopefully expand their knowledge of meadmaking and bubble up their questions to the Got Mead community rather than be timid and keep their thoughts bottled up. This way we foam-ment a sparkling example of a counter-pop culture site who are still seen as helpful rather than pettilant. OK, I'll put a cork in it, Mumms the word! Damn, my car is on empty, better go buy de-gas!

02-05-2009, 03:38 AM

wildaho

Quote:

Originally Posted by PBakulic

OK, I think we all might be feeling the pressure so I'll head off any pun disagreements and put a cap on this discussion and say that I want Got Mead to be the premier mead site with a friendly atmosphere so our members will be primed to discuss any condition they encounter in their meadmaking adventures. Absent feeling riddled with questions about recipes and process, members will hopefully expand their knowledge of meadmaking and bubble up their questions to the Got Mead community rather than be timid and keep their thoughts bottled up. This way we foam-ment a sparkling example of a counter-pop culture site who are still seen as helpful rather than pettilant. OK, I'll put a cork in it, Mumms the word! Damn, my car is on empty, better go buy de-gas!

You flip my top Pete! You've got this pun thing screwed down. I might wax and wayne but you are always on top! I've been foiled again, damn it. In a capsule, I am feeling some sham pain. It will pass. Still, I refuse to boldly go where others have gone. If I have to explain myself, well, I'm not doing my part. I'll probably bomb but at least I won't be flat!

02-05-2009, 04:13 AM

osluder

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kee

NO PUNS!!! The thread will deteriorate into chaos!

Sorry, Kee. I opened Pun-dora's box. ;D

Quote:

Originally Posted by osluder

[H]ow are things like full-sparkling meads handled ... ?

I got to considering my last post and thought of the small bottles of Belgian ale (Duvel, I believe?) where they cork and then cap, but those are pretty distinctive bottles too I recall. -- Olen

02-05-2009, 12:08 PM

wayneb

Olen, to answer your question about sparkling meads (No puns, I promise! ;) ) and to cover Medsen's concerns, if we work with the same entry constraints as we used for last year (and I think that Glenn is planning to keep it pretty much the same), it will also be acceptable to submit your entries in corked 375 ml or 750 ml bottles. So you can use plain, unmarked Champagne splits (or full sized bottles if you're feeling generous!) with champagne corks and cages, provided that there are no logos printed anywhere on the cork. Same for still meads bottled in wine bottles.

Again, the rules of anonymity will apply -- no distinctive bottle shapes, no markings of any kind on the corks, and you'll be good to go. Stay tuned to the Mazer Cup International website for the actual rules for this year -- Glenn is getting them finalized and he should have them posted there shortly.

02-05-2009, 02:19 PM

Kee

Quote:

Originally Posted by osluder

Sorry, Kee. I opened Pun-dora's box. ;D

Olen, I lay this entirely at your feet...

02-05-2009, 10:31 PM

Noe Palacios

I want to participate, but ...

Vicky, Pete:

I want to be part of this event, but because of my job I am not sure if I can come in Flesh & Bones.

One thing is for sure, an aunt of mine is going to the USA in February, and she can take with her to Chicago my bottles and send to you, so I can participate in the competition.

The only thing is that the mead I have now is in Jerez wine bottles and they are with normacork corks. Can you make an exception with me?

I badly want to participate and badly want to go and IŽll do my best to be there.

Noe

02-06-2009, 02:35 AM

Oskaar

Hey Noe,

Please email me with your entry information and if this is a commercial or home mead competition entry.